"The azalea lace
bug spends the winter as an egg inside your azaleas'
leaves," Braman said. "Now
that the temperatures are warming, the eggs are
beginning to hatch. And newly emerged
nymphs are beginning to feed."

Braman said a properly scheduled insecticide application
will get rid of these nymphs
before they mature and have time to lay eggs.

"If you
don't kill them before May,
they will have laid eggs, and you'll have to spray several
times," she said.

If not controlled, azalea lace bugs can produce four
generations from spring to fall.
"If you kill this first generation," she said, "you may
not have to spray
again."

UGA entomologists urge homeowners to use less toxic
insecticides to save the good bugs
in the landscape.

"Using less toxic insecticides allows you to conserve
beneficial insects like the
parasitic wasps and spiders that feed on lace bugs,"
Braman said.

"Horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps have been
around a long time," she
said. "People are using them more now. But you need to
remember that these are
strictly contact insecticides."

Contact insecticides must be sprayed on the insects.
They work best on soft-bodied bugs
like aphids and lace bugs.

"They have no residual activity on the leaves," Braman
said, "So
beneficial insects can walk on that leaf surface, after
the fact, and not be killed. Good
contact with lace bugs on the underside of the leaves is
important for good control."

If homeowners don't spray for azalea lace bugs,
Braman said, young plants will suffer
the most damage.

"In our research," she said, "we
have observed that
older plants, those that have been in the landscape
for several years, can withstand more
lace bug damage. They can tolerate some damage because
they have well-established root
systems and are not already under stress like a newly
transplanted azalea."

Braman said this is one reason homeowners keep
replacing young plants year after year.

"If you wait too long to spray, the nymphs
will become egg-laying
adults. And you will have to fight all stages of lace
bugs," she said.
"Unfortunately, the egg stage is not affected by
insecticides."

(Sharon Omahen is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)